The proposals of some 40 initial members for establishing SIGFSM, the ACL Special Interest Group for Finite-State Methods, was warmly supported by ACL Exec in March 2009. The FSMSIG is an umbrella for research and activities associated with all aspects of finite-state methods (FSM) in NLP, including their computational and mathematical aspects, basic and applied research, tool and infrastructure construction etc.

The new version of the SIG constitution waits for its final approval of ACL Exec. Some paragraphs that were previously borrowed from the constititions of the existing SIGs turned out to be unsecure at the present, which suggests there is also a need for a renewed review of the previously approved constitutions.

No elections have been held yet. The current de facto officers:

President: Anssi Yli-Jyrä

Treasurer: Thomas Hanneforth

Secretary: Laurette Pretorius

A broad International Advisory Committee (IAC) is being appointed by the President on the basis of the suggestions that have been collected from the members. Web Master is not yet appointed. Liaison Representative is still open, since we are looking for someone who attends ACL.

The SIG has organized its first business meeting to be held in conjunction with the FSMNLP workshop that takes place in Pretoria in July 2009. We are expecting some 45 participants. An important goal of the joint meeting in Pretoria is to get the FSMNLP series adopted by the SIG. FSMNLP workshops have been organized spontaneously on a yearly basis since 2007. The next FSMNLP/SIGFSM meeting may be allocated already in Pretoria by the IAC.

There is a tentative home page in a wiki but the SIG has not yet establised other resources and activities.